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The actor will play a troubled director who brings his latest movie to the festival along with his actress wife. But while they present a united front to the press and public, their marriage is crumbling in private. Golshifteh Farahani, Pierre Niney and Ana Giaradot are also among the cast.

"It's a story dealing with love and cruelty," Thompson says in a statement picked up by Variety. "Cannes is the ideal backdrop because it can be exhilarating or depressing; it catalyzes rich emotions – we can be hailed as a film master one day and smashed by critics the next day."

Thompson co-wrote the film with regular collaborator (and his mother) Daniele Thompson and has $13.4 million to spend shooting before, during and after the festival, which this year runs between 15 and 26 May.